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Funny, I remember taking my cat with feline cardiomyapathy to a very exclusive expensive kitty cat cardiologist for care and having the vet tech or nurse as she called herself berate my plan of care for my cat because I was a RN and couldn't possibly take care of him at home, monitor respirations, give sq lasix as needed, etc. Kitty was a no code. Needless to say, she was reported and the beloved cat lived a wonderful life at home with us until his final days and NEVER returned to see that cardiolgist or his staff! At least the professionals I work with are trained to deal wth the human response to the illness and recognize the important bond people have with their animals and respect a families' preference for end of life care when it becomes necessary.

I went to a doctors apt and I was told to give my info to the nurse .
My "nurse" walks in I found out she was not a nurse but a former ?? The hole thing was just odd .

The "Nurses" in doctors offices are not usually a RN. They are refered to as "The nurse" but they aren't nurses. If they represnet themselves and "I'm your nurse" technically it is illegal in most states to represent yourself as a nurse without a license and can culminate in criminal charges.

So it is very possible that a former "vet tech" works in your doctors office, they may have gone for medical assistant training or is an aide. I'm not sure what is required training for a doctor's office assistant are, if any.

Funny, I remember taking my cat with feline cardiomyapathy to a very exclusive expensive kitty cat cardiologist for care and having the vet tech or nurse as she called herself berate my plan of care for my cat because I was a RN and couldn't possibly take care of him at home, monitor respirations, give sq lasix as needed, etc. Kitty was a no code. Needless to say, she was reported and the beloved cat lived a wonderful life at home with us until his final days and NEVER returned to see that cardiolgist or his staff! At least the professionals I work with are trained to deal wth the human response to the illness and recognize the important bond people have with their animals and respect a families' preference for end of life care when it becomes necessary.

I've worked with a lot of vet techs and vets and most of them dread the human med pet parents because a looooot of them try to medicate the animal themselves or try to tell the vet what /they/ think the pet needs and get mad and defensive when the veterinarian tries to explain no, that's not the case. A pet is not a miniature human. And despite the fact you're an RN, a cat and a human are vastly vastly vastly different. I've unfortunately seen a couple cases and heard of more where an animal died because a human med person thought that they knew better than the vet. :/

our naja kitty squatted and gave me a bloody sample on the floor, and having seen this before i took her to our vet and reported she had a uti. he stuck her for a urine sample and gave her an antibiotic. next day he called to say the urine c&s came back clean, and we shrugged and went back to life. alas, naja almost went on to die, as she had a rare side effect to this very common antibiotic and almost infarcted her bowel. after a stat cat scan (really) she had emergent surgery that night by a guy that reminded me of a pedi surgeon-- great huge guy with immense hands and a heart of gold. "oh, i love calicos!" he said. "i'll take good care of her." but he didn't know if she'd live.

we went to visit her in the icu the next afternoon. she had a staple line from her pubis to xiphoid, drains, and a little kitty picc line in a shaved foreleg for blood draws, ivs and pain meds so she didn't have to get stuck all the time. she was wrapped in a pedi-sized bair hugger and in an oxygen cage. do not ask what all this cost us.

and those nurses were great-- i watched them check her spo2, take vs, give her iv pain med before moving her, turn her from side to side, check her urine specific gravity, and pet her and croon to her all the time. i don't know what they had to learn in school, but whatever it was, they knew exactly what they were doing and looked like they'd be perfectly at home in any picu i've ever seen. so yes, in the vet context, they're nurses.

i bless that surgeon but i also bless the nurses, and told them so, nurse to nurse, how much i appreciated their skills. i was able to talk shop so well with them that they assessed me as being able to manage home care a day sooner than usual for this sort of thing; i took her home with the big collar, a few meds, a schedule to give them, a med sheet to chart them, and dressing supplies. she was in step-down (confined to our bedroom) for three weeks. i took out her staples at 8 days; i saw she wasn't paying any attention at all to her staple line if i let her have the collar off to eat, so after a few trials of observation i let her keep it off. good patient, adherent to treatment plan.

she's fine now, two years later, catching rabbits and cuddling with us whenever she wants, very communicative and a pushy cat. we're glad to have her.

I have to agree with others in the fact that Vet Techs are animal nurses and equivelent to human nurses. They have an Associates degree and have to take the same amount of credit hours that the ADN students. I lost a cat in February and the animal hospital we took him to was incredible!! They had an ICU where each animal had their own tech, they had 24 hour care. I was able to call at ANY hour to see how he was doing. They had every kind of specialist you could think of: Cardiology, Oncology, Nephrology, Endocrinology etc... They had an on premisis laboratory as well as MRI and Cat Scan machines. This hospital was also a teaching hospital in that students from all over the country would re-locate in order to complete their internship here. It was just incredible! My boy was 15 years old and we lost him to a brain tumor. After that experience I have told so many people that if I ever needed to be hospitLized I wish it could be at this hospital...I have several cats and they have been perscribed meds such as valium, amoxicillin, phenobarbital, Lantus, prozac, immodium ID, prednisolone, zeniquin, pepcid and the list goes on. Just my

I know I'd rather have my cat's vet try to take out my appendix rather than all but one of the surgeons at my last hospital. I had a cat that developed cancer from the feline leuk vaccines (VAS), and his surgery turned out better than a lot I've seen by "people" surgeons. And you can't tell a cat what he can and cannot do.

My big Maine Coon baby is now 4 years post diagnosis, doing well. Please, please, please, if you have a cat and they get a small lump in the scruff of their neck, don't assume it's just because he's been roughhousing with his brother or he's got a "kitty zit" either. VAS is real, it happens, and it almost killed my 4 footed child.

I know I'd rather have my cat's vet try to take out my appendix rather than all but one of the surgeons at my last hospital. I had a cat that developed cancer from the feline leuk vaccines (VAS), and his surgery turned out better than a lot I've seen by "people" surgeons. And you can't tell a cat what he can and cannot do.

My big Maine Coon baby is now 4 years post diagnosis, doing well. Please, please, please, if you have a cat and they get a small lump in the scruff of their neck, don't assume it's just because he's been roughhousing with his brother or he's got a "kitty zit" either. VAS is real, it happens, and it almost killed my 4 footed child.

Hi,
I am a former Veterinary Assistant (on the job training) of 10 years. I am currently in nursing school and I can say that my exposure to medications/terminology has helped quite a bit so far. I never claimed to be a 'nurse' in the vet world although if people asked I would say my job was "kind of like a doggy nurse'. In the doctors office where I work I would NEVER presume to tell people that I was a nurse. It really annoys me when someone does that! I have heard of vet techs letting people think that they are the Veterinarian. Why can't people just be who/what they are? I miss the animals... Relysh

Hi,
I am a former Veterinary Assistant (on the job training) of 10 years. I am currently in nursing school and I can say that my exposure to medications/terminology has helped quite a bit so far. I never claimed to be a 'nurse' in the vet world although if people asked I would say my job was "kind of like a doggy nurse'. In the doctors office where I work I would NEVER presume to tell people that I was a nurse. It really annoys me when someone does that! I have heard of vet techs letting people think that they are the Veterinarian. Why can't people just be who/what they are? I miss the animals... Relysh

I'm another "former vet tech" to add to the list, though not for anywhere near as long. I have to agree with past vet tech experience helping out in nursing school. But I also never would have claimed to have been a "nurse." I never heard any of my coworkers claiming that, either. Everyone just said "vet tech" or "pet nurse." I think people in the veterinary industry (at least in my experience) understand it's different from human medicine and don't want to step on any toes/cross any lines. It also doesn't offer any benefit, as veterinary medicine is a completely different field of work than human medicine (in my mind...I've always thought of veterinary medicine as completely separate from human medicine, even though there are undeniable similarities).

But someone else mentioned a degree is required...not entirely true. Many places are headed this way, but I don't think there are enough grads yet to saturate the field with licensed vet techs. And some places (primarily Banfield, the corporate veterinary chain located inside PetSmarts) prefer to hire people with no training. They want to train them in order to indoctrinate employees into the Banfield philosophy easier. *shrugs* That's not at every Banfield, but a lot of them.

Oh, and people would often mistake me for the veterinarian. I never pretended and I ALWAYS corrected them, but it happened a lot. I blame my height, though...I'm 6'1" and I think stature makes people think you have a higher job title. Just a theory, though.